Huge Gender Degree Gap at Ages 22-23: National Crisis, Title IX, Government Funding? Probably Not

According to a report released this week by the BLS: "At age 23, there is a clear gender gap in educational attainment. While nearly 1 in 4 women had earned a bachelor’s degree by the October when they were age 23, only 1 in 7 men had done so, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported (see chart above). Additionally, the same percentage of men and women, 16 percent, were enrolled in college at age 23, so it is unlikely the gap in educational attainment will close in the next few years." MP: The BLS also reported that at age 22, 12.7% of women had earned a bachelor's degree at age 22 compared to only 6.8% of men at that age. In other words, at age 22, there are 187 women holding a Bachelor's degree (or more) for every 100 men who have graduated from college. By age 23, there are 164 women with bachelor's degree for every 100 men, and that degree gap won't likely change much at later ages because the same percentage of women and men (16%) are enrolled in college at age 23. Now that's a huge gender disparity in college completion at ages 22 and 23, but I predict:1. This gender degree gap will receive almost no media attention, and certainly no attention from the gender activists, who demonstrate a selective concern for only those gender imbalances that favor men. 2. There will be no calls for government studies, or increased government funding to address the problem, and nobody will refer to this persistent gender degree gap as a "crisis."3. President Obama will not address the issue by signing an Executive Order creating the "White House Council on Men and Boys," like he did for women and girls.4. Neither Obama nor Congress will address the gender degree gap by invoking the Title IX gender-equity law, like they have considered using for the gender gap in some college math and science programs. 5. Nobody will blame the gender degree gap on structural barriers from grades K-12 that discourage men from attending or graduating from college, like they do for explaining the gender gap for women in math and science. In other words, the standard "disparity-proves-discrimination" dogma will not be applied in this case of a huge gender imbalance in college completion by ages 22-23, because the disparity favors women, not men. But consider what happens when the disparity favors men, and this is just one example of many:NY Times: "Women make up 46% of the American workforce but hold just 25% of the jobs in engineering, technology and science, according to the National Science Foundation. To Sally K. Ride, a former astronaut, that persistent gender gap is a national crisis that will prove to be deeply detrimental to America’s global competitiveness."

A full-time female employee earned 82.5% of what a man earned in 2014, up considerably from 1979, when women made an estimated 62% of what men did. While this is certainly an improvement, progress has slowed between 2000 and 2014.

A full-time female employee earned 82.5% of what a man earned in 2014, up considerably from 1979, when women made an estimated 62% of what men did. While this is certainly an improvement, progress has slowed between 2000 and 2014.